


Wedding

by digitalsoop



Category: Free!
Genre: Gen, Post Series, but it's actually about Gou and Rin, since they're getting married, very heavily implied makogou
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-30
Updated: 2013-10-30
Packaged: 2017-12-30 22:00:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1023882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/digitalsoop/pseuds/digitalsoop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt!Fic</p>
<p>Makoto and Gou are getting married, and Rin does his best to fill very important shoes.</p>
<p>Cross posted from Tumblr</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wedding

Gou’s mother had waited all of two days after the announcement of her daughter's engagement to Makoto to begin sighing about all the troubles that she could expect from a wedding. Then Makoto’s mother had joined in. And both grandmothers.

The food would probably be served late;  _you_ will definitely be late; your dress will certainly end up being stepped on or torn; someone will probably break a glass; and a plate; and ruin your cake; your husband will definitely get drunk and make a fool of himself; or spill something on you; you can give him a clip on tie so it won’t end up on his head, but one of your drunk uncles will eventually give him theirs, so you may as well force him to wear a real tie so you don’t have to figure out who it came from; it’s better to just give up on anything going smoothly if you actually want it to be the happiest day of your life.

Makoto had laughed. “That can’t happen all at one wedding.”

Rin, oddly enough, had agreed. “And even if it does, I’ll deal with it.”

Her brother mostly kept his distance during the planning, despite valiant efforts from everyone, including Makoto, to rope him in. When he was asked his opinion on invitations and flowers and themes he would narrow his eyes and smartly reply in English: “ _Sorry, I don’t understand._ ”

He cared a bit more when he was asked about where the wedding should be, and for the first time in a while he actually sat down and talked to Makoto for more than the usual fifteen minutes. Gou was stunned to hear that they had talked for nearly four hours, and it hadn’t really been about the wedding at all.

"But that was the whole reason you were supposed to be talking."

"Well, we just kept talking once we had figured it out, that’s all."

When she and Makoto disagreed on the planning, they would turn to Rin.

Who cares if other people like the flowers? Makoto is making you wishy-washy; if you haven’t talked in five years don’t invite them. They’ll only come because you’re buying them dinner; you both look bad in red, so don’t bother with it. You’re doing a Western wedding anyway; don’t worry about the dress, I’ll buy it.

"Brother, you don’t have to do that!"

“ _Sorry, I don’t understand. Speak a little slower._ ”

"You can’t use English to wiggle out of this!"  

"Huh?  _What? Japanese is too difficult, sorry._ ”

She was still trying to convince him when she was standing on the pedestal, in the whitest dress she had ever seen in her entire life, and he had listened to her arguments with his arms crossed and the usual bored expression.

Finally he reached out and held her hands in his. “Just let me do this much. It’s not a lot.”

Gou knew her brother well enough to know that he wasn’t talking about the price. They looked at each other, squeezed their hands, and shared a small smile. “Okay. Just never tell Makoto how much it was, we won’t hear the end of it when he finds out.”  

 The day of her wedding she couldn’t look to Makoto to be her source of calm, because they weren’t allowed to see each other. Her mother had been trying not to cry the entire day, and it was when their mother was dabbing her eyes at just the thought of lowering Gou’s veil that Rin appeared. “Makoto is talking a mile a minute, I needed a break.”

Gou fidgeted in her dress, then absently adjusted her veil even though her mother scolded her for it. “He’s really nervous.”  

Rin stayed by her side, quietly watching their mother and aunts make sure everything was straight and perfect, and she found herself quietly watching with him, without so much as a single twitch. She didn’t think it mattered if everything was perfect, because the dress was mostly soft and light fabric that would move as soon as she started to head to the aisle. Makoto would just be happy to see her.

Finally her mother was able to collect herself enough to kiss her cheek and lower her veil, and the siblings found themselves alone, waiting. She reached out to hold his hand, and when she looked up at him his jaw was tense and his gaze on the floor. But he squeezed her hand, and they tried to take a deep breath together, but Gou’s ends up caught in her throat and Rin didn’ actually take a breath at all.

Instead he reached out and lifted her veil, pressing his forehead against hers, and they stood in silence until Rin lifted his face and kissed the top of her head. “Don’t tell Mom, she’ll kill me if she finds out I was the last one to lower it.” They both laughed, noses scrunching, and he carefully dabbed her eyes so her makeup wouldn’t be ruined.

She was glad that she had the veil to hide behind, because even though she was holding Rin’s hand so tight she’d probably popped some of the bones out of place, she was still desperately blinking back tears and holding her breath; Rin didn’t have anything to hide behind. 

Through the haze of her veil and very hot tears Gou could tell that Makoto had noticed, and when he and Rin were face to face, waiting to bow to each other, he came very close to reaching out to him, but clenched his hands instead.

But Rin didn’t bow. Alarmed couldn’t properly express her reaction when Rin dropped her hand, and turned away from Makoto, and she dumbly reached out and grabbed his wrist as soon as he pulled her into a hug. She could feel his shoulders shaking, and she put her hands on his back and closed her eyes.

"I’m sorry," he muttered.

She shook her head, tightly gripping the back of his suit. Her throat was too tight for her to tell him not to worry; she mustered a small “ _tou-san”_ and Rin tightened his hold and she knew she didn’t have to try and say anything else. She didn’t really know how long they stood holding onto each other, but finally Rin pulled back, his face damp, and lightly pinched her cheek through her veil.

The guests chuckled, and he looked down at her with a thin smile because he didn’t want his lips to quiver. “I know he’s watching today.”

She rubbed her cheek, and with a nod reached out and pinched his arm. She didn’t realize that Makoto and Rin had bowed to each other until his much larger hands took hers. He bent down as if he was going to kiss her, but he seemed to notice the veil and chuckled and squeezed her hands instead. “Are you okay?”

"Of course I am," she giggled. "I’m getting married."

Gou didn’t know what everyone had been so worried about. The food was on time;  _she_ was on time; the flowers were beautiful; Makoto became very adept at carefully moving the skirt of her dress out of harm’s way; her husband did not get drunk and embarrass himself; the tie, courtesy of Nagisa, ended up on her head, and after one picture Rin had carefully removed it.

He gave her an exasperated look when he tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “I guess you could have picked worse than Makoto.”

She clicked her tongue. “Rin.”

"Dad would be happy," he said. "With you and Makoto."

"He’d be happy with you, too. You’re a great brother."

With a small smile he shrugged his shoulders, then reached out and pinched her cheek.  She scrunched up her nose and pinched him back. 

**Author's Note:**

> I thought Gou and Rin would both be prone to crying and I was absolutely right.


End file.
